1) He still needs books, pens and ink to reckon time.
2) The consequences are that he could lose his count of days, weeks and months and forget the Sabbath days.
3) He makes a cut on a piece of wood on the shore every day, recording also weeks and months.
4) He misses someone to talk to.

Interpretation

1) The use of words which came from Science and geography (such as "autumnal equinox" and "latitude") and the great precision in locating the place and establishing the time struck me the most.
2) In both extracts there are precise references to place and time.
3) I think it makes the events more likely and it helps the reader to identify with the protagonist.
4) He uses a concrete, precise and simple vocabulary.
5) He uses long and complex sentences.
6) Words repeated: "reckon", "day", "time", "observe/observation", "pens", "ink", "books"
Long lists: "want of books and pen and ink" (l. 7-8), "pens, ink and paper [...] a dog and two cats" (l. 21-29).
7) They make it clearer.
8) The story is told in first person and this choice contributes to realism because it makes easier for the reader to identify with the protagonist of the story.
9) I'm interested and curious to go on.

Pag. 192 Interpretation

1) In Oroonoko the protagonist is not only described as a beautiful person , but also as a very potent, intelligent and brave man, who is equal or even superior to many Europeans. On the contrary, in Robinson Crusoe Friday is described as a nice man, but he is considered inferior; indeed Crusoe teaches him how to eat and speak.
2) While the descriptions of Friday and Oroonoko , despite their differences, underline a kind disposition towards other races, this poem reminds all the violence and the ill-treatment black people have been subjected to in history.

Pag. 206 Comprehension Pamela or Virtue Rewarded

1) She is a young girl sent to a rich woman's house to work there as a maiden.
2) It is her mistress' death.
3) The comfort is that Pamela is not forced to come back home, since her mistress' son has decided to keep her as a maiden.
4) She is given four guineas and some silver.
5) Her master comes into the room and he sees her while she is folding the letter; he reads it and he says he really admires Pamela's spelling and handwriting, so he lets her use his dead mother's books.

Interpretation

1) Pamela uses the present tense, since she is writing a letter. As a consequence, Pamela relates events which have just happened and so she writes according to her emotions at that moment.
2) It is achieved by the use of an informal tone, typical of an informal letter, and by a syntax often broken by exclamations and comments, which stress emotions (especially in the last part).
3) - I find the master's behaviour to be very lascivious and very curious about Pamela. - Pamela thinks this is due to his goodness and his improved behaviour. - At the beginning Pamela is very scared ("Good sirs! How I was frightened! I went to hide the letter in my bosom"); I think her reaction to be excessive and unmotivated.
4) I expect her parents to write a warning letter about her new master's lascivious behaviour.

Pag. 208 Comprhension

1) Because they think Pamela is compromising herself being too much obliging towards her master.
2) They think he may want to attempt Pamela's virginity since he has been too much kind and praiseful towards her, while he previously was "a little wildish".
3) Pamela's parents have been informed by another woman that it is not unusual to give a dead lady's money to her maidens; however they fear that his kindness may conceal some deeper intentions.
4) It is to leave the house immediately and to come back to her parents.
5) They put it in a secure hiding-place to preserve it in the case Pamela's "virtue" (her virginity) is compromised.

Interpretation

1) Yes, because the title hints to the fact that Pamela is a virtuous girl, and so I expected her parents to worry about her virginity.
2) No, it hasn't.
3) The epistolary form makes it possible.
4) He has to compare the two points of view (Pamela's and her parents') to understand how the events are interpreted, both on a rational and on a sentimental side, by Pamela and her parents.
5) I expect him to be full of attentions for Pamela.
6) I guess these words are said by Mr B. (Pamela's master), and I think the novel ends with Pamela and her master's marriage.

Pag. 212 Comprehension The history of Tom Jones, a foundling

1) The doctrine the narrator examines affirms that love does not exist in the human breast.
2) They hurriedly search in their mind (called by the narrator "a bad mind") and thus they find concepts and ideas that (they think) can be applied to everyone.
3) Gold-finders do not have "the impudence or folly to assert from the ill success of heir search that there was no such thing as gold in the world".
4) The best summary is A.
5) The narrator advices the reader to consider his heart: if he shares the narrator's point of view he can go on reading, otherwise it is better for him to drop reading.

Interpretation

1) The narrator advocates a love based on the disposition of human beings to be helpful towards other people (so friendship and philanthropy are considered love).
2) I expect it to be very libertarian.
3) It is a very close one, since the narrator directly refers to the reader.
4) The narrator's tone changes from very serious to mocking ("to treat the effects of love to you must be as absurd as to discourse on colours to a man born blind").
5) It reminds me of Jonathan Swift, since he also treated important and serious topics in a mocking and derisive way, often parodying people's flaws.

Pag. 216 Comprehension The Life and Opinions of Tristam Shandy, Gentleman

1) In the three chapters it is narrated that the protagonist's uncle, Toby, fell in love with widow Wadman, and the news have been reported through a letter to Susannah, who then reported them to Shandy's mother, thus alimenting a conversation in Shandy's house.
2) Digressions occupy most of the space.

Interpretation

2) I prefer the "straight line" narration, since it is more clear and easy to read.
3) The great realism in describing events and situations links them; Sterne is similar to Fielding also because of the digression about love.